Heavy Rain
by Gamesplayers
Summary: He let his head fall down lightly as he stared up at the dark clouds that covered the holy land. Someday, he would have to tell him that he was his enemy. But until that day would come, he would merely be the darkness within the light. Challenge fic. R


**Writing challenge from Darkwolflink1**

**Must have something to do with ears;**

**Link and/or Dark Link X Sheik;**

**It's raining = crappy weather;**

**In an inn.**

**I do not own The Legend of Zelda nor anything related to it.**

**Read and Review,**

**Gamesplayers.**

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* * *

**Heavy Rain

Breathing loudly, heavily, he succeeded to make his way out of that blue hell. Not only did he had to swim in the intoxicated waters of the lake, but as soon as his head popped out of the blue liquid, he gasped for air, but only found just as much water.

But it was falling from the sky.

He kept breathing loudly, mouth-opened as he slowly swam to the shore. As he did his best to survive. A wave helped him reach the sandy and grassy earth, but as his feet touched the bottom of the lake, he merely fell into the water. His legs wouldn't support his weight anymore.

The wave swallowed him completely and he gasped into the water, breathing liquid. He reached the shore, hitting it roughly and he rolled on his side, sand crawling into his clothes. Into his wounds.

He coughed. He panicked as he did all he could to turn on his back so he could breathe. But he coughed. And when he opened his mouth to let air reach his lungs, all he found, again, was water.

His tears mixed with the heavy rain and the poisonous water of the lake. Jaws clenched, he sobbed as he brought his left hand to his right shoulder, trying to put the bone back where it should have stayed.

Blood rained down his forehead, lip, and from the small stab wound on his left thigh. He hyperventilated. He wasn't able to calm down. "Link!" Even with his eyes shut tight, he could see the brilliant light of Navi's small frame. She arrived, she hurried into the rain, but the droplets kept wetting her wings, bringing her down. "Link!" She cried again and all he could do was growl in pain as the rain kept falling on him. On his broken body.

On his broken mind.

Hero of Time. Hero of a kingdom. Someone important. Someone great that people would respect and love.

That's what his role was supposed to bring. Wasn't it?

He was supposed to become, in the end, more than an orphan. More than a commoner that no one would remember of. He would become… Something.

But now, he was hyperventilating on a shore, crows flying and laughing above him, waiting for him to die and abandon his fight so they could devour his numb body. His useless person.

He was crying. Navi was shouting as she was slowly drowning in the mud, beside him. He would have loved to be able to help her, his fairy; his only friend and family.

But he couldn't. Because he couldn't even help himself.

_Sheik…_

"Link!" The small fairy cried in desperation as the Hero of Time suddenly calmed down. "Link!" She yelled hysterically, shaking the water away from her wings. "Link!" He was still.

He was unconscious.

* * *

"This weather is the shittiest ever." Complained a redhead woman as she scratched the back of her head. She looked over her shoulder at her only customer. "Dontcha think so?"

A blond, athletic young man was sitting behind her, at a table as he played his harp, very softly. Eyes closed, he wouldn't answer. The redheaded woman rolled her eyes. "How can I get customers in such weather…" She turned to stare at the blond. "Beside you, that is." He kept his back to her.

She stared at his back; he was always wearing that dark blue tight suit with the red eye on his chest. His skin was darker than most Hylian and his hair gold like the sun. He was quite remarkable.

She sighed, shifting her weight and pushing her hip on the side before resting her fist on it. She was quite curvy. "Sheik, seriously. Can you answer when I speak to you?" He stopped playing to look at her from above his shoulder. Half his face was covered as his crimson eye locked with her. His other eye was hidden behind a thick curtain of golden locks.

"I would if I had something to say." He returned to his harp. The redhead growled softly before sighing, looking down.

Malon had transformed the first floor of her house into an inn, recently. In facts, she had done so after the Hero of Time himself had come to save her from Ingo's infernal treatments. She was hoping, in doing that, to attract people to the ranch and make more money. Have a better life and do something different than taking care of the cows.

It was her dream; to have a prestigious inn.

But so far, her only customers had been a couple of stray Zoras and Sheik.

Notes after notes, he had brought her enough rupees to survive until her inn would be known better. He had kept her company over the days and nights. Even if he was cold and stoic, Malon liked him; he was a caring man, behind that Sheikah shell.

And when she had been crying, drunk and miserable, he sat beside her, at night, and comforted her.

He wouldn't talk; he would simply take his harp and play.

Song of Healing.

Song of Time.

Minuet of Forest.

Bolero of Fire.

She had come to recognise the songs and even sang along with him. She had a beautiful voice and loved to sing. He was quiet but had skilled fingers and he loved to play.

And she had come to like him. To like his quiet and mysterious nature. To like his rude and few statements.

And Malon found herself hoping, after a time, to perhaps know more of this dark man.

But when she proposed him the idea, a night she was wearing more revealing clothes. A night she was ready and hoping to get more of the Sheikah, he had turned her down.

She was shocked and sad, as he had left.

But the next day, he was back and everything was like before; always sitting at the same table and playing his harp, softly, song after song.

And quickly enough she understood that she would get from him only the greatest of friendship.

So now, she stood behind him, smiling softly as she looked out the window at the pouring rain. In the distance, she heard a horse snort angrily.

Finishing a song, Sheik looked out the window as well before playing a few quick notes on his harp. He closed his eyes.

Everywhere around Hyrule were stones which bore the single eye of the Sheikahs. They were gossip stones, and merely a Sheikah could hear what they had to say. Through the wind and the air, the notes he played brought him the messages and events of the whole land.

Kakariko wasn't going better as Bongo-Bongo kept attacking villagers at night.

The Zoras were still frozen down.

Kokiri was better now that the Hero had gotten them rid of the evil in the Forest temple, but the children of the nature missed Saria and the Deku Tree more than never.

The Gorons were doing well, but elections for the new chief were a hot subject in the mountain, bringing chaos and violence amongst the usually peaceful rock-eaters.

The desert was still quite miserable and Nabooru was risking her life by attempting to find the Spirit temple.

Castle Town wasn't less devastated.

And the Hero had collapsed near the Water temple, gravely injured.

Sheik opened his eyes and he blinked before getting up. Malon looked at him. "Are you leaving? In this rain?" She asked, worried. The blond neared the door and rested his hand on the knob.

"Prepare a bed and medicine, Malon. I will be back soon."

* * *

Soaked, the Sheikah reached Hylia's shores an hour later. He was soaked and his hair clung to his face as his steady and bloody gaze found the unconscious hero. Sheik stood where he was; to anyone, he would have seemed cold and merely observing the scene with calculating eyes. But in facts, he was shocked.

The Hero of Time was laying on his back, barely breathing and covered in dirt and blood. Left hand on his chest and right shoulder visibly dislocated. His blue and somehow reptilian Zora tunic was now brown as the blood had stained the bluish leather. He was, very apparently, dangerously wounded.

And unconscious.

On his chest, a very frail and greyish fairy seemed to be on the edge of dying. She crawled very slowly to the Hylian's neck. Sheik could hear her cries. He could hear her praying.

Slowly, under the heavy rain, he walked beside the Hero and his partner.

"S-Sheik…" The little blue bug whispered. She shook lightly as the Sheikah picked her up into his palms. "Save… Him…" She was lying down against his skin, breathing softly.

"What happened?" He asked, his tone cold.

"He-he was injured in the Water temple… Fighting… Himself." Sheik blinked, looking down at the fairy. So Ganondorf had sent the dark twin, after all.

"I see." He stared down at the Hero of time before switching his crimson eyes on the dying fairy.

Navi whined softly as he took her and installed her numb body into a hidden pocket of his suit. She shivered against him and even if she was a very small creature, Sheik could feel the vibration of her aching and cold body.

And he brought his attention down on the Hero again.

Even covered in dirt, this man was handsome. He looked peaceful, even if the blood running from his veins and the paler of his skin indicated something else.

Sheik observed the Hylian's sharp and severe features; the way his ears and nose were particularly pointy and his jaws well defined. He had thin lips and suspicious brows. His hair seemed darker as they were wet, stuck on his skin and dirty with sand and mud. The scratches on his cheek were very strangely well positioned.

He merely seemed wild, even in this dangerous sleep.

The blond took his harp out and played a few notes that reminded of the green plains of the kingdom. And Epona –Link's mare- appeared.

Leaning down, Sheik carefully pushed an arm under the Hylian's upper back and the other one behind his knees.

Link was slightly taller than himself, but considerably heavier. Yet, the Sheikah was strong despite his slender build. He lifted Link's unconscious weight under the horse's worried stare. Epona snorted as Sheik mounted her, the Hero of Time resting against his chest, his head on the blond's shoulder.

And as the wind blew a particularly cold wave of pouring rain at the two men, Epona started galloping towards her former home.

* * *

Malon gasped loudly as Sheik pushed the door of her inn open; he was soaked, and so was the bloody man he held against himself. The blond looked at her and she ran across the room to show the Sheikah a room. "Put him in here!"

"Have you prepared the medicine I asked?" Sheik demanded, his tone casual, though he was visibly hurrying to get the Hero into the room. Malon nodded.

"Yes, on the night table!"

She followed the Sheikah as he stepped into the room and slowly installed the Hylian onto the bed. She put a hand over her mouth, feeling slightly nauseous as her improvised visitor was in a rather disturbing state. "What happened to him?" She asked.

"A fight." Sheik replied as he started undressing the Hero. He looked above his shoulder at Malon. "Please, leave the room." She looked at him, then at Link before nodding.

"Yeah." And she exited, closing the door behind her.

Quickly, Sheik undressed the Hylian. Still he was soft and careful as he had no intention to harm him more than he already was. Soon enough, he found himself staring down at a naked Hero. A wounded and scarred man.

His crimson eyes spotted a chair, in the corner of the room, and he brought it beside the Hylian's bed so he could work more properly.

Sheik sighed; something he did rarely.

If Link survived this, he sure was a hero…

* * *

Note after note.

Image after image.

An emotion ran through him.

His bones, his veins vibrated to the beat. To the sound of Life. To the music of Death. He would see Navi. He would see Sheik. He would see the Water temple and feel the pain over and over again.

A groan.

A moan.

He shivered as his temperature rose and fell. He clenched his fist.

A tear fell down his cheek.

A soft voice and a careful hand. Attention he never received and he never desired. Something brushed his skin. Something was crying.

His mind was black. The room was black. The world was black.

Only images flashed by. Images of the future and the past. Image of what he was and what he would become.

It was offered to him as a choice; the quiet whisper of Death clung to his ears, to his mind. Its soft embrace hugged him in a warm blanket as he felt the need to let go into that motherly attention.

Life presented itself in a more aggressive way; it presented itself in a blinding of white and flashing wind that surrounded his spirit as the notes he heard, in the back of his tired and agonised mind, got higher and more hoping.

He was tired. His soul was still childish. He was still eleven, deep down into his heart. He had seen his childhood being taken away from him by his own destiny. No one had asked and everyone thought he had to be sacrificed.

A terrified and agonising child sacrificed for the greater good of the nation seemed logical.

But it was not.

And Death kept reminding him how betrayed he was by that population he tried to save with his life. It kept reminding him that he bore the weight of the world on his tired shoulders.

And it was right.

Note after note, the dark demon of temptation was bringing his soul down with him.

But a white bird clung to his broken wings, pulling him above the water. Pulling him to the shore once again as he felt that he needed to breathe more than never. Pulling him as that shiny bird sank its crimson stare into his.

Life was full of hardships.

Life was despicable.

Life was a challenge, and a hard one.

Life was beautiful.

And that was exactly what was the song he heard about; it started softly, sadly, with nostalgic notes that reminded one of hardships and pain. It reminded one of tears and blood. It reminded one of his failures and dark times. It oriented one towards the embrace of Death.

But the music would soon get slightly quicker. The beat increased and got higher. It reached a peak. Something strangely hopeful. Something bright and luminous through the darkness. And it made one's soul vibrate to the sound of hope and life. To the sound of faith and future. It suddenly made the grass greener and the sky bluer.

That song was about life. It described it better than anything else.

It was soothing.

It was healing.

He knew it was _him_ who was playing…

Sighing deeply, Link cracked open his greyish eyes.

Swallowing, he turned his head just enough to see the Sheikah beside him, playing his harp softly. The song he played was the same he kept hearing in his dream.

_Sheik…_

He was covered in bandages and Navi was sleeping on his chest. As always.

Slowly, Sheik stopped playing and opened his eyes to look at the Hero of Time. "So you have chosen the hardest path." He stated. Link merely groaned, closing his eyes again.

"It… Hurts…" The dirty blond managed to whisper through a soared throat.

"You were knocking at Death's door."

"More like begging." Link replied, whispered. Yet, the Hero managed to smile softly. "Song of Healing… I have never heard… Something more… Beautiful." Sheik chuckled softly.

"It is meant to bring souls to peace." Sheik looked at the Hylian beside him. "Aren't you more peaceful?" Link looked at him and he plunged his icy eyes into Sheik's hot stare.

"Why did you come for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" The blond tilted his head to the side, slightly.

"Because you're always running from me." Link's expression was dead serious. He was in great pain; Sheik could tell by the way the Hero's voice would stay low and weak. The blond looked away, but he could still feel the icy and piercing accusing stare of the Hero. "Now again, you're running." How are you supposed to tell the Hero of Time that you are working for his ultimate enemy?

"I am a Sheikah. Emotions are a nuisance to our work."

"Bullshit." Link's tone was harsh. "If it was true, you wouldn't be telling me this." Right. He was right. "Turn me down for good." His stared was persistently unbearable. "But don't let me hope." Sheik got up.

"Morpha will be waiting for you. There is not much remaining for the temple to be cleaned of its evil." He walked towards the door.

"When this'll be over. Will you finally tell me why you reject me?" The blond stopped before the wooden gate that separated him from the world and this chocking atmosphere.

"Soon enough, Hero, you will know everything." His red stare locked with the knob. "You will heal quickly and Hyrule is a sick land. You are its only hope."

Before Link could reply, Sheik disappeared, using a deku-nut.

Link let his head fall back into the pillow and he closed his eyes tightly. "Fuck… Sheik… Don't leave me alone…" He whispered, tears forming themselves behind his lids.

For a moment, he thought the Sheikah would let him get closer.

For a brief instant he believed it was the right time. It was the right thing.

As always, he was mistaking.

And the heavy rain lasted.

* * *

Up on the inn rooftop, Sheik stood into the rain. It had rained for three days, now. The Hero had been under his care for that time. The Hero he had learned to love secretly.

He let his head fall down lightly as he stared up at the dark clouds that covered the holy land.

Someday, he would have to tell him that he was his enemy.

Someday, even if Sheik would betray Ganondorf, he would have to face the Hero of time and tell him that all that time, he was working for the Evil himself.

And he prayed to the Goddesses that, when that day would come, Link would be able to forgive him.

Of he should kill him.

For Sheik couldn't live knowing the only man he had ever loved would hate him.

But until that day would come, he would be the Hero's shadow.

He would be nothing but the darkness within the light.

* * *

**God, I hope this is good because I can't seem to pronounce myself over it.**

**Yes, I inspired myself from the manga, at some point.**

**So, thanks, Darkwolflink1 for the ideas and I just hope you like it.**

**And I apologize if there are spelling mistakes.**

**Gamesplayers.**


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